The Tribeca Film Festival doesn’t just treat cinephiles to loads of hotly anticipated flicks: Since its inception in 2002, it has also offered a concurrent series of public discussions with directors, actors and critics. Tribeca Talks 2013 kicks off on April 17 with a total of 23 events taking place throughout the film festival. They range from gratis panels with blossoming filmmakers to big-name blockbusters followed by Q&As with all-star casts. The discussions give audiences a chance to connect with big-shot industry members; Ben Stiller, Elaine Stritch and Whoopi Goldberg are among the draws. To help you narrow the field, here are some highlights of this year’s outing.

Hopeless romantics probably shrieked with joy when they heard that the third installment of Richard Linklater’s “Before” series (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset) would play at TFF after premiering at Sundance, so we can only imagine how tickled they’ll be by this chat between the director and his stars. Linklater, Hawke and Delpy will hark back to 1995 when the trilogy began and discuss the new feature Before Midnight, which picks up nine years after Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) reunited in Paris.

Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, RoboCop) penned the first four minutes of this film, and then invited the public to submit script and casting suggestions. Over 39 weeks, some 35,000 fans sent in ideas via entertainmentexperience.nl. Verhoeven received 700 scripts (about 3,000 pages total), which he culled down to a 53-minute movie with input from 397 collaborators. This North American premiere begins with a behind-the-scenes video on how the material was gathered; it’s followed by a screening of the film itself, which depicts a real-estate tycoon whose life is turned upside down by his pregnant mistress and conniving business partners. After the screening, Verhoeven will discuss how the creative process differed from that of his Hollywood hits such as Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers.

This documentary honors late comedian Richard Pryor, covering his evolution from benign stand-up to controversial superstar. Jennifer Lee Pryor, his widow and one of the project’s producers, granted director Marina Zenovich (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired) access to the pioneering comic’s personal effects. The biographical flick also includes interviews with the comedian’s family and close friends, including Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams and Mel Brooks. Postpremiere, Zenovich will discuss the provocative figure’s legacy with similarly raw actor-comedian Tracy Morgan, Pryor admirer and former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, and crime-fiction novelist Walter Mosley (who won a Grammy in 2001 for his liner notes on a Richard Pryor box set).

Attend the world premiere of Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story, a documentary by historian and Time film critic Richard Schickel. The movie explores the filmmaker-actor-producer’s half-century-long (and counting) career, and features anecdotes from his past collaborators such as Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep. After the screening, Brooklyn-born director Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream) interviews the notoriously tight-lipped Eastwood on his moviemaking style and the 40-plus films he’s either acted in or directed. Just don’t expect any explanation regarding that baffling conversation with an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Commemorate the 20th anniversary of triple Emmy Award–winning docudrama And the Band Played On, one of the most chilling and powerful films to explore the AIDS crisis. The made-for-TV movie, adapted from Randy Shilts’s best-selling book of the same name, depicts the early years of the epidemic in America by portraying the effects the illness had on patients, the medical community and gay activists. After the viewing, New Queer Cinema movement pioneer Tom Kalin will lead a conversation on social politics and AIDS in the arts with a panel of actors, screenwriters and directors.